Singer Shelhiel's "Farewell, Angel" Is a Vision of Love and Life

A multifaceted, consummate master of technicalities and virtuoso artist, Shelhiel Fong is the up-and-coming music artist recognised for his subversion of genres that break barriers in music. Through the hybridisation of the cultural influences in his Malaysian roots with the fantasy-based narration Shelhiel conjures, he breathes new life into the local music scene, while paying homage to the rich cultural life and heritage of his national identity.

After he was crowned the winner in a talent show, he made his debut in 2020 with his first EP, Superstrobe. There, he kicked off his journey as a genre-bending artist and made a breakthrough in his music production prowess and creativity. 

In an exclusive interview with L'Officiel Singapore, Shelhiel unravels his multi-layered single "Farewell, Angel", taking us through the sources of influence that turned his musical fantasies into actuality.

Introduce to us the Angel. 527 persona you’ve created for Superstrobe.

The Superstrobe EP is a concept EP of the story of Angel. 527 descending to Earth, experiencing love and life. When I started writing my debut EP, Superstrobe, I knew that I wanted to keep it pure and return to my music origins. I’ve tried to explore different genres along the way for years, and I wanted to put out something that really sets the beginning for the sound of Shelhiel.

Therefore, the visualisation of the Superstrobe universe resembles the origin and the beginnings of me as an artist, the ideation started from my birthplace, and upbringing influences: my hometown of Sungai Petani, Kedah, as well as my beliefs and my faith in God. Therefore, the Superstrobe visual identity is a marriage of influences of Malaysian Chinese, Sino-futurism and Christianity. I’m trying to design a world that is real to me, yet still rooted in fantasy expressionism.

Let’s talk about your latest release, “Farewell, Angel”. What made you decide on that title for your single?

The whole tracklist of Superstrobe was designed as a cyclic story of the descent of the Angel. 527 to Earth and his eventual departure. And executing Superstrobe's rollout has been quite a journey because it took a lot of time to organise and design the elements in the world. Resources such as time, money and a dream team were factors that were crucial for worldbuilding. I’m grateful to have people that trust my vision and allow me to turn my art and musical fantasies into reality. I wanted to end the series with an impactful closure, hence the single “Farewell, Angel”. 

What was the creative process behind your latest single?

I've always wanted to perform and arrange my music with an orchestra or string quartet. When I got the invite from Singapore International Festival of Arts 2022 to perform, I thought it was the most perfect time to do so. I rearranged the 2017 demo from when I first wrote the song “Runnin, Merindu” into an intro to “Runnin, Merindu – String Mix".

That leads into “Farewell, Angel”, as I imagine it as the soundtrack playing during the ascension of Angel. 527, a peaceful and elevating emotion for a perfect ending and a representation that all good things in life eventually come to an end. I worked alongside Shio, who played the violin on “Runnin, Merindu”, cellist Lynn Ng, as well as keyboardist Yuswa Ansari. The string mix is another level — I couldn’t stop listening to it to relive the dopamine rush.

Compared to my other videos, this is the most dramatic and dark one because it signifies the end of the era for Superstrobe, the goodbye to Angel. 527. As it's my third directorial work, I tried to keep the shots simple and straightforward, as it is a live show, but it also appears like a ritual in which the various musicians are playing my final song and sending me off to the skies.

The paddy blade is inspired by paddy and keris (a Malay dagger), and falls down slowly with angelic light rays, as the paddy slowly gets closer to me, about to pierce my heart. The whole mood encapsulates my imagination of how when we die, we get lifted to be taken away by the angels or God — it's heavenly and ethereal. That’s how I would love it to be.

You’re often recognised as a maximalist pop artist. How does maximalism contribute to your style of music?

Since I was a kid, I was into different worlds of various unique cultures and fantasies. I would dive into storybooks, art books, and encyclopaedias for hours, just to explore illustrations of ancient worlds of civilisation, the complex scenes of Where’s Waldo? and diagrams of cross-sectional elevation drawings of buildings, where you can see a whole scene of what everyone is doing inside the buildings, from the top floor to the underground.

My curiosity grew throughout my adolescent years till when I started to take my architecture degree. It taught me to have the skillsets to organise my emotions, thoughts and ideas into workable concepts and structures.

With that, I sketched and planned out what to release with Superstrobe, my debut EP. Therefore, what you see in my planning is contributed by my years of experience in songwriting and visual ideations. The Shelhiel aesthetic is built like that for now — an accumulation of my upbringing and influences from my faith, to my mother tongue and what I’ve been listening to in this multilingual rich land of culture. Yet, Superstrobe is just the beginning of the Shelhiel world.

You’ve written, arranged, and produced most of your songs. Were these skills all self-taught?

I started writing songs in high school for my school’s patriotic song competition; afterwards, I participated in and won a local talent show. Next, one of the judges offered me to learn basic music production at Studio One. Soon after that, I joined another national songwriting reality show '非常好歌' and clinched first runner-up, along with the Best Promising Composer Award.

Instead of being signed as a label songwriter, I joined local beat cyphers called Midnight Oil, where I ended up being a part of a Malaysian electronic music collective, Akhyla. During that time, we really pushed each other’s production limits because we’re young and naive; making music is fun and everyone wants to be the best in the group in the healthiest way possible.

I guess the time and journey I took really honed my production and writing skills to allow me get to where I am today. I've really taken my time to practise and work on my songs, putting more thought into the overall journey and concept of the EP. Never too late to release music, I guess!

If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be? 

There are too many to name! Lido, DEAN, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Ye, James Blake. They’re some of the greatest artists and producers who create magical worlds of music and opened my eyes and ears to what art and music can become — that influenced how I make and approach my music. 

Have you considered bringing your craft outside of Malaysia?

Yes, definitely. As trilingual as my music could be, I hope it can travel the world, eventually reaching my peak of performing globally. I just found out someone played my song “Love Ride ft. Shelhiel [Knopha Remix]” in an HÖR Berlin DJ set — but it's a Mandarin track produced by Japanese producers Tomggg and phritz, and I have no idea how my music travelled there. Music has no borders, man.

My remix album Superstrobe (Remixes) is an example of me trying to not just push the Malaysian sound, but also the Southeast Asian sound, where I brought together some of my friends and my favourite artists from all over Asia and Southeast Asia, such as the Philippines’ crwn, LONER and dot.jaime, Singapore’s Fauxe, Japan’s Double Clapperz, Malaysia’s rEmPiT g0dDe$$ and many more. Currently, I’m planning for shows in Malaysia, and hopefully, I will be able to expand beyond Malaysia to Southeast Asia and the rest of Asia.